We are not in the 80's or 90's anymore

By Helen Charles-Morgan MIOR

Duran Duran is not number one, Back to The Future and Footloose are not on at the movies, and MC Hammer's trousers and my leg warmers are well and truly locked away, so why are so many recruitment companies still setting targets as if we were recruiting in the 80’s/90’s?
 

The 80’s and 90’s were great times in recruitment, jobs a plenty, candidates walking in to your offices, the phone never stopped ringing with clients wanting to give you business; but things have changed, the way we recruit has changed, our client’s usage of recruiters has changed - and candidates have more options and ways and means to find a job now. So what point is there in continuing to set targets based on the good old days?

I met a very forward thinking recruitment agency today, who only set their consultants an agreed monthly monetary target, how they achieve that is up to them, but at the end of the month they all meet and discuss how everyone achieved their targets, and nearly all do. What happens in their end of the month meeting is that it is obvious that all their consultants work in very different ways, all have different strengths but all are achieving their targets.

Some like to hit the phone and work with a few MPC candidates, others are more research biased and make few but quality calls, generating relevant vacancies for their niche market; and some just work from a PSL and like to be more candidate focussed. But one thing that stands out is they are all allowed to work to their own strengths and do not have to follow a one rule fits all regime. .

Now I am not saying this is how all companies should work, but this company is well ahead of their targets, consultants are very happy that they are being treated individually and there is not a leg warmer in sight!

Just a thought
Helen

Image Credit: JD Hancock